Whistleblowers sources are akin to spies who would have been executed in the past, his remarks just hours after his acting intelligence chief told congress that the whistleblower did the right thing and deserves protection. Our correspondents, experts, and guests are standing by as we cover another huge day in the impeachment investigation. First, lets go to our Political Correspondent sara murray. Sa relatively sara, the whistleblower complaint is out and democrats have new fuel for their impeachment investigation. Reporter thats right, wolf. It shows how Administration Officials allegedly scrambled to make sure the details of this call never got out. Were you shocked at all by what you read . None of us is above the law in this country. The complaint relied on hearsay evidence. Reporter tonight, the whistleblower complaint made public reveals the president not only asked the ukrainian president to have joe biden and his son investigated, but white house officials were allegedly so alarmed, they quickly moved to lock down the call. Officials allegedly moved the data to a secret server. Apparently this was not the first time documents were placed in this code word level system. The complaint also alleges trump told Vice President mike pence in may to cancel a trip to attend the ukrainian president s inauguration. Trump wanted to see how president zelensky behaved in office. Today, acting director of National IntelligenceJoseph Maguire appeared before the House Intelligence Committee and defended his decision to take a whistleblower complaint that names the president straight to the white house. Such calls are typically subject to executive privilege. As a result we consulted with the house counsels office and were advised much of the information in the complaint was in fact subject to an executive privilege, a privilege i do not have the authority to waive. Reporter maguire revealed trump never asked him to figure out the identity of the whistleblower. I would not normally discuss my conversations with the conversation butt i can tell yo emphatically, no. Reporter President Trump ultimately allowed the complaint to be made public. The president of the United States has betrayed his oath of office. Reporter republicans mostly slammed thursdays hearings as an effort to attack trump. I want to congratulate the democrats. Reporter maguire said he thinks the whistleblower acted in good faith. I think he followed the law every step of the way. Reporter wolf, the complaint also claims that Rudy Giuliani is a central if you go in all of this and it may not surprise you that giuliani had some thoughts today. He shared them with the atlantic and said it is impossible that the whistleblower is a hero and i am not and i will be the hero. These morons. When this is over, i will be the hero. He is angry right now, you can see that in the conversation he had with that reporter. Thank you very much, sara murr y murray. Now to President Trump, blowing a fuse over the whistleblower complaint and likening the people behind it to spies. Chief White House Correspondent jim acosta joins us now. Jim, the question is furiously suggesting that he knows this is very serious. Reporter thats right, wolf, the president suggested at a private breakfast earlier today, for example, that the person who told the whistleblower what mr. Trump was up to amounted to a spy who can be pushed like, quote, in the old days. A source who has spoken to the president in the last hours tells me mr. Trump appears to be lacking in focus and more district distracted than he has in the past as he becomes more consumed by the whistleblower complaint. President trump is throwing punches at almost every direction. Taking aim at democrats running the whistleblower hearing up on capitol hill. I just watched a little bit of this on television. Its a disgrace to the country. Its another witch hunt, here we go again, and i have to put up with adam schiff on an absolutely perfect phone call. Reporter the president is also sounding like he wants vengeance, lashing out at a bright breakfast, demanding to know who tipped off the whistleblower. I want to know who is the person who gave the whistleblower who is the person that gave the whistleblower the information . Because thats close to a spy. You know what we used to do in the old days when we were smart, the spies and treason, we used to handle it a little differently. Reporter mr. Trump also predicted the economy would collapse if hes thrown out of office, tweeting, if they actually did this the markets would crash. A supporter of mr. Trump described him as distracted and less focused than usual, not really coming to grips with whats happening. House Intelligence Committee chairman adam schiff brushed off the attacks. Im always flattered when attacked by someone of the president s character. Thank you. Reporter the complaint is damning, potentially for white house aides. Not only did the complaint say that the president invites interference in u. S. Elections, white house aides said, quote, they told me there was already a discussion ongoing with white house lawyers on how to treat the call because of the likelihood that they had witnessed the president abuse his office for personal gain. Democrats are hearing echoes of watergate. This is a coverup. This is a coverup. Reporter also appearing throughout the complaint, the president s personal attorney Rudy Giuliani who claims the state department was fully aware of his work in ukraine on behalf of mr. Trump to dig up dirt on former Vice President joe biden. I never talked to a Ukrainian State Department official until the state department asked me. Laura, im a pretty good lawyer, just a country lawyer, but its all here, right here. Reporter jugiulianjulgiulia andre yermak. I suggest we schedule a call on monday. To the best of my knowledge, from what ive seen so far, each of the actions that were undertaken by state Department Officials was entirely appropriate and consistent with the objective weve had since this new government has come into office. Reporter the White House Press secretary rather than answer questions in a briefing as weve seen in administrations in the past instead released a statement saying this complaint is nothing more than a collection of third hand account of events. The president is innocent and has done nothing wrong here, if thats so, republicans are wondering why the white house woof covered up his actions. As one republican in the house conceded, this matter warrants continued investigation. President trump has been in his office, in the residence all day today, wolf, he has not taken a question about what he said earlier today about spies being executed. Thank you. Right now i want to bring in a democrat on the Intelligence Committee who was asking questions earlier in the day. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us. As you know, weve seen this full whistleblower complaint that kicked off this entire controversy. What concerns you most about this report . Clearly the way it was handled. Whats absolutely clear now is that the white house and the department of justice worked together to sit on it, to cover it up. And thats particularly alarming because the two people prominently fingered in this complaint are the president of the United States and the attorney general. And we now know the man who was supposed to send it to Congress Instead went to the white house and the department of justice where those two individuals implicated by the complaint could kill it. Do you see evidence, hard evidence of a coverup effort by the white house . Well, thats the effect. The department of justice opinion saying that this is outside the jurisdiction of the Inspector General isnt worth the paper its written on. And today the director of National Intelligence confirmed that he has authority over foreign interference in our elections. And saying he didnt was the basis for the Justice Department saying it was outside the jurisdiction of the ig. In other words, it was a transparent effort to keep a lid on this thing. And by the way, wolf, thats the same reason they abused the classification procedures and the normal procedures at the white house, to take the record of this call and to put it in an extraordinary database, the code word top secret database. I spent three years at the white house, i was the white house staff secretary. This is not code word classification. And by the way, its improper and prohibited by executive order to classify things to avoid embarrassment. They did it to hide it. The whistleblower alleges this isnt the first time they did Something Like this. Do you have evidence to show where there were some other occasions . Were just getting started. We need to hear from the whistleblower. We need to run down all the elements of the whistleblowers complaint. We shouldnt take it at face value, by the way. We need to make sure were getting the facts in a fair way. It needs to be expeditious and thorough. What you have here is wrongdoing at the very highest levels of the United States government and an effort to cover it up. We cant let that happen. Will you be subpoenaing some of the people mentioned in the whistleblower complaint and others who are not mentioned, are you looking to bring them before your committee . Im going to did he ever to the chairman for that, mr. Blitzer. You can call me wolf. Im going to did he ever efe chairman. Maybe the president didnt realize how serious it was, now you see him acting erratic. I think he feels the walls are closing in, he knows hes been caught. Only after a couple of days were seeing the extraordinary wrongdoing and the efforts to cover it up. Thats a pretty good days work, and theres more to come. Whats your understanding of Rudy Giulianis role in all this . Did he go rogue . Did he have the support of President Trump or attorney general bill barr . Whats clear is he was working closely with the president. By the document we have of the call, the president tells the president of ukraine to work directly with mr. Giuliani. Its quite clear mr. Giuliani was working directly with the president to engage in a Smear Campaign against the bidens using a Foreign Government to do it with leverage being American Military assistance. Thats outrageous. So mr. Giulianis role is nothing good, i can he will you that. We need to get to the bottom of it. Are you concerned about the extent to which President Trump seems to be informed by right wing conspiracy theories . Oh, look, im concerned with just about everything that comes out of the president s mouth. What he said today about how we treat whistleblowers as spies, what is that . My god, that is the kind of comment that is beneath hoifs b his office but not beneath him. I spoke to adam schiff and he said hell be moving expeditiously. Lets talk about prioritization of these witnesses. The attorney general has some very serious questions to answer here about what he was doing with that opinion, what he knew and when about his own name appearing in this complaint, as someone who might be engaged in this pattern of misconduct, and he should recuse himself immediately, so thats one. Mr. Giuliani obviously has relevant information and i want to understand i want to understand what he has to say under oath. Theres others mostly that we need to corroborate all of the elements of this complaint so we make sure were being thorough and fair. We want to protect this whistleblower, by the way, so the other people who had knowledge of this pattern of misconduct, feel comfortable coming forward with what they know. The whistleblower in the complaint mentions dozens of other officials at the white house and throughout the government who are aware of this, alarmed by it, deeply disturbed is i believe the term he used. We want those people to feel comfortable coming forward. It doesnt help that the president of the United States is lobbing around threats. Sean patrick maloney, thanks so much for joining us. My pleasure. David challenian, among the allegations that President Trump asked ukraines president to investigate political rivals on a phone call, that white house lawyers ordered the rough transcript be hidden because it showed abuse of office by President Trump. It was not the first time rough call transcripts had been hidden because they showed politically sensitive information. That ukrainian officials were led to believe President Trump wouldnt talk unless they were willing to, quote, play ball. That President Trump canceled Vice President pences trip to ukraine as a form of pressure. That state Department Officials met with ukrainian officials to help them, quote, navigate President Trumps demands. That Rudy Giuliani is a central figure who circumvented National Security making processes and that President Trump withheld military funding to ukraine. How concerning are these allegations . I dont see how they couldnt concern every single american. And i would urge everyone to read this document. It is damning. Now, the first one, the phone call that you talked about that we got the transcript, rough transcript of that yesterday, but those next two points on your list that you just red, that say coverup. The notion of a lockdown and moving these documents into a place reserved for National Security issues, not for political vulnerability, but it seems thats exactly what was done. And that that was directed by white house officials, according to this complaint. And the important point to make about that is as serious as it is, it is just at this point an accusation. We have the transcript of the phone call. The phone call is not in dispute. We have a rough transcript. That is the president is going to have to figure out a way to deal with that. And corroborated. And corroborated. Thats out there, and, you know, established as a factual matter. The democrats, if they want to do this in a serious way, now have to take the whistleblowers report and see how much they can corroborate. Its incredibly serious to anything that there was a coverup in the white house of the relationship with ukraine, but its not proven yet. Phil mudd, you worked at the fbi, at the cia. What stands out in your mind in the list of allegations i just discussed . The idea of corroboration that jeffrey was talking about, the person who wrote this refers to getting secondhand and third hand information. But theres a couple of pieces that are surprising. Theres a ton of names in there and there are other people unnamed like the intel guys at the white house who could tell you how the safe was used that you could corroborate in two weeks if the white house complied with subpoenas from the hill. The level of corroboration in that document is pretty remarkable. I would say one more thing on corroboration. The person who wrote that, wrote it before the transcript came out and it appears that the complainants description of the phone call the president made is accurate. So theres at least some corroboration already. Very accurate indeed. Laura, the president clearly understood how much leverage he had over ukraine, the new president of ukraine. Of course he did. And he exploited it. If we are to believe the allegations, and he did so in a manner that tied to taxpayer dollars. Remember, what were talking about is very basic in the sense that we pay taxes, congress uses that, appropriates funds and earmarks it to protect the National Security and the interests of ukraine against a geopolitical rif politicapoliti russia. The president says, i need you to investigate joe biden. We call that an abuse of power. He the president of ukraine needs at least a quarter of a Million Dollars to push back russia. This is not the art of diplomacy, not the art of being a public official. This is all named in the constitution. Samantha, you used to work at the nsc during the obama administration. White house officials immediately knew right after that phone conversation with zelensky, the new president of ukraine, that it was improper, it was awkward political statements that the president was clearly seeking assistance from ukraine to get dirt on joe biden and his son hunter biden, and they took this extraordinary step to hide the rough transcript of this conversation in a top secret vault. Well, wolf, frankly, i served under two president s, a republican and a democrat. I am frankly astounded that more people at the white house did not come forward after this phone call. We dont know about any other interru transcripts that may have more damaging information. When white house lawyers who are supposed to help the president faithfully execute his powers, not help him commit corrupt acts, im very surprised that people who had access to this system, would not have come forward. The secretary of state gets a copy of the transcript. How was it not concerning to him that the president of the United States was soliciting for election interference and suggesting that president zelensky work with Rudy Giuliani who is not a member of the u. S. Government . For at least the course of when this phone call happened to when the